The exemplary embodiment relates to a method and apparatus that provides processing, including network address translation, for general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol user plane traffic on generic data center servers supporting multiple radio bearers in a mobile network. While the exemplary embodiment is particularly directed to the art of wireless telecommunications, and will be thus described with specific reference thereto, it will be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment may have usefulness in other fields and applications.
By way of background, a mobile network operator (also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier) is a provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls the elements necessary to sell and deliver services to an end user including radio spectrum allocation, wireless network infrastructure, back haul infrastructure, billing, customer care and provisioning computer systems and marketing, customer care, provisioning and repair organization. Mobile network operators' networks are populated with a large and increasing variety of proprietary hardware appliances. To launch a new network service often requires yet another variety of proprietary hardware appliance and finding the space and power to accommodate all these boxes of proprietary hardware appliances is becoming increasingly difficult. This difficulty is often compounded by the increasing costs of energy, capital investment challenges and the rarity of skills necessary to design, integrate and operate increasingly complex hardware-based appliances.
Moreover, hardware-based appliances can rapidly reach their end of life, requiring the procure-design-integrate-deploy cycle of new appliances to be repeated with little or no revenue benefit. Worse yet, hardware lifecycles are becoming shorter as technology and services innovation accelerates, inhibiting the rollout of new revenue earning network services and constraining innovation in an increasingly network-centric connected world.
Thus, there is a need for a method and system that resolves the above-referenced difficulties and others.